Miami- The speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Republican Paul Renner, announced Monday that the chamber is “ready” to approve in March a bill promoted by Governor Ron DeSantis, which would allow the carrying of a firearm. without the need for a permit, something that Democratic congressmen and activists oppose.
Renner made the announcement during a press conference attended by sheriffs from several counties to support the measure.
“Florida led the nation in allowing concealed carry, and that extends today as we remove the government’s permission slip to exercise a constitutional right,” Renner said.
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In Florida, Republicans control the state legislature and have enough votes on their side to get the bill through, and it is expected to pass in March, according to local media.
In April of last year, DeSantis took his conservative agenda a step further by promising to sign legislation allowing state residents to carry a firearm without a permit, something he called “constitutional carry.”
Currently, Floridians don’t need permits to buy a gun, but they do need permits to carry them in public, so if passed, this law would eliminate that requirement.
The term “constitutional carry” refers to the right to carry a firearm, either discreetly or openly, thanks to the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which gives the American people the right to keep and bear arms.
“We are united in opposition to this bill,” said Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, whose Parkland district was the scene of a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 that left 17 people dead.
Fred Guttenberg, father of a student who lost his life in Parkland at the hands of Nikolas Cruz, a life prisoner, reacted to today’s announcement by saying that “there is no freedom” or “in the grave.”
“In two weeks it will be five years since Jaime and 16 others were murdered in Parkland, Florida. This morning spokesperson @Paul_Renner announced the Carry Without Permit (Open Carry Soon) legislation, ensuring more people die from gun violence in Florida. There is no freedom in the grave,” he wrote on Twitter.
In another Zoom press conference organized by the Florida affiliate of the Giffords organization, which works against gun violence, former Florida congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell recalled that “in Florida we live in two of the largest shootings in USA”.
He thus referred to that of Pakland and that of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which in June 2016 was the scene of an armed homophobic attack with at least fifty dead and 53 injured.
“We know that the leading cause of death for those under the age of 18 is gun violence. In Florida, 60% of Hispanics do not want this type of law”, stressed the former congresswoman.
Cecilia Gómez, a community organizer from Giffords, said that she came to this country from Venezuela when she was five years old after her parents decided to look for “a safe place.”
“My mom works at Walmart and not a day goes by without fear because there are employees who have been attacked. Every day, I have to call my mom, this cannot continue like this, ”she emphasized.
Most Republicans, DeSantis voters, gun owners and white voters “oppose the carrying of firearms without a permit,” the Giffords organization, founded by former Arizona Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who in 2011 survived a gun attack in Tucson.
The study revealed that opponents of the bill include Republicans (65%) and voters of DeSantis himself (60%) in Miami-Dade, Florida’s most populous county.
Mucarsel-Powell insisted today on how dangerous the law can be if it is approved, since it does not require a criminal record check or training for gun carriers.
“Are you on the side of the criminals or the families?” Asked the former congresswoman of Hispanic origin.
If approved, the new measure would place Florida in the same group of more than thirty states where a permit is not required to carry a weapon in public, according to the Giffords organization.
